Discovery on the Orange Islands
by Percyfan1998
Summary: Following Ash Ketchum's victory against Trovita Islands gym leader, Rudy, Misty is left to wonder why she still follows the Pallet Trainer around. However, when trouble strikes in the midst of their journey, Misty finally comes to terms with her emotions. Pokeshipping. Epilogue received new update.
1. Her Inner Turmoil

_Her Inner Turmoil_

"…And so Tracey, I got higher in the Pokémon League than Gary, because I'm awesome at what I do!" Ash proclaimed proudly, following recent events - from stopping, and capturing a Snorlax from digesting a whole series of islands of their grapefruits; saving a town from rumors over a giant Bulbasaur, bringing back power to a town with the help of wild Magnemite, and his defeat of Trovita Islands gym leader, Rudy in a three on three match up, with Squirtle having learned Hydro Pump in the process. All such events to say the least, had gotten to Ash's head, and was now feeling very high and mighty about himself. Tracey was in awe of it all.

"Wow, so even though Gary is Professor Oak's grandson, he has yet to surpass you in battle?"

"Not yet," Ash smirked. "But when I win the Orange league, I'll really show him just what it means to be a Pokémon Master!"

But while the two boys were chatting up ahead as they walked along to find a Pokémon Centre, their third companion, Misty, was lagging behind, grumbling to herself, she had a reason for this though.

"Stupid, dense, idiotic Ash…" she muttered underneath her breath. "Rudy was so nice and gentlemanly, and yet… I feel, nothing for him. But I do… For _him_ ," she thought, glancing up in Ash's direction, where he was busy boasting to the more naïve Tracey. His airy confidence and smirking grin glancing around was enough to make her eyes avert their gaze from him, blushing all the while.

If anyone had ever paid any attention to Misty's demeanor, one would know she's hotheaded, stubborn, and has got a nasty temper to boot. But underneath her hard exterior of boiling heat is a much softer core, a kind of kindness that can be attributed to her femininity, this side showed a much more caring, kinder, and amiable Misty; but because of her past with her sisters, and Ash's original stupidity at the start of his journey, she became moodier and more bad tempered, and thus shielded her true nature indefinitely.

" _I mean sure, he's dumb all that, like_ _ **all**_ _boys are…_ " she thought, thinking back to Brock on that last one. " _He's as dumb as Psyduck is, can't even pick up the most obvious of hints I throw at him… But he's so caring, kind, and stands up and takes care of his friends when they really need it… I… Really admire that, but he's reckless but always pulls it off somehow, must be dumb luck. But somehow all things is what makes him so cute and handsome looking…_ " as Misty played this out in her head, her cheeks flushed red, and when she picked up on her heat, she became utterly embarrassed.

" _Uuu-uuuugggh…!_ " she screamed inwardly. " _What's a girl suppose to do?! The target of my attraction is but a dense idiot, how can I ever break that shield of his, and get him to understand?!_ "

"Hey, Misty!" a male's voice called, breaking through Misty's thoughts. It was just Tracey, he and Ash were now facing her, with quizzical but also worried looks on their faces. "Are you okay? You seem out of it," the teenager continued.

"Uh… Err, yeah! I'm fine," she faked, giving a fake laugh to try to convince them otherwise. "Just uh… Thinking about things, that's all. Isn't that right Togepi?"

"Pri pri, Togepri!" the egg Pokémon chirped obliviously, he was just happy to be out in the sun and safe in Misty's arms, unaware of what his trainer actually meant.

But even with Misty's 'reassurance,' Ash's eyes couldn't help but narrow down after her response. He approached his female companion cautiously. "Huh… You're still not thinking about what Rudy said to you, are you?" he asked darkly, truth be told, Ash had no idea why, but what the gym leader had mentioned to Misty bothered him very much.

Misty couldn't help but feel a little bit cheeky given Ash's sudden jealousy. "What's it to you?" she smirked, turning to the side. "So what does it matter what he said? I am my own person; I can do whatever I want, when I want. Why do you care Ash?"

Ash was very upfront, "Because, you're my friend, and I happen to care about what you do! A lot."

This caught the ginger haired girl slightly off guard with his tone, while it had been brash, there was an undertone to it that made it sound like he meant more than just a friend… She decided to test it.

"Oh, and why is that, Ketchum, what do you mean by 'caring'?"

"I mean, you are one of my dearest friends after all, Misty," Ash said, not sure himself where she was going with what she was saying. All that did was tick her off!

" _Just a… 'friend'?!_ " she angrily thought, " _oh you would…Though you did use the word dearest but still!_ "

"Gah!" she cried out loud, "of course, typical of you isn't it?! Just a friend huh?!" She suddenly snapped, and in her fury of Ash's density she ran off in the direction of the Pokémon centre.

"Wait, Misty!" Ash yelled, confused and surprised. "Jeez, wonder what's gotten into her lately, huh Tracey?"

"Huh, wish I knew…" Tracey responded. This definitely wasn't normal behavior from Misty by any means. But in his mind, Tracey began to theorize exactly what might've been on the water-trainer's mind…

Later that afternoon the trio finally made it to a Pokémon center. Misty was busy entertaining Togepi, whilst Ash had gone off to the vending machines. As a Pokémon Watcher, Tracey had taken interest in some of the other trainers' Pokémon around the center, he had been doing this long enough however to see a rather interesting sight…

He was just applying some final shading details to a sketch of a trainer's Ivysaur when he noticed Ash finally got back from the vending machines. He placed some snacks down, Tracey noticed that some of them were some of his own favorite snacks to eat, he figured that Ash had gotten them all their favorite stuff seeing he had been gone for more than five minutes.

It was then something curious happened, Ash picked up a bag and soda can, the type of drink and chips she liked. The raven-haired trainer then proceeded to poke Misty to get her attention. "Hey, Misty?" Ash said, poking her shoulder. "I uh… I got your favorites from the vending machine for you."

Misty perked at this. "Aw, thanks Ash," she said, taking the goods. "But… Why? I wasn't particularly asking you for these, plus they are pretty expensive."

"Well, I…" Ash began, bashfully. "I figured these would cheer you up after you got upset earlier."

Misty couldn't help but smile at that. "Thanks, you're a good friend," she said.

"No problem!" Ash exclaimed, his shyness now replaced once again with his usual boisterous attitude, before patting Misty on the back, and then went to go give his Pokémon some attention. What he didn't see however was Misty's now big blush, the idea that he touched her made her all red.

Ash hadn't seen that, but Tracey did. " _Weird,_ " he thought. " _Ash got… Shy, when Misty smiled and thanked him. That's not like him, not him at all. And Misty… She got awfully embarrassed when he touched her with a simple pat. It's like an infatuation…_ " Tracey suddenly gasped, now it all made sense! Her earlier frustration, combined with what he just witnessed told the teal shirted teen everything going on with those two.

"Huh," he said quietly to himself. "Things between those two can't keep going on like this, there has to be some way to break the ice. But, where to start…?"

 _To Be Continued..._

 _ **Hey guys! Your author here, no, I am still not cancelling the Ash Harem story, but whilst doing that fic I thought it'd be nice to do some more 'standard' Pokemon shipping fics, and this here is one of them. I reckon it'll get to four, maybe five chapters long. Thanks for reading!**_


	2. Human and Pokémon Watcher

_Pokémon and Human Watcher_

With Tracey's realization having now been confirmed, he was left in a real pickle for sure. On one hand, he really wanted to confront Misty about her troubles, on the other, he had seen how hot headed Misty was, and feared two things – one, she would punch him for saying anything; two, he'd attempt to get her to open up, but it would go downhill quicker than Snorlax falling down to sleep after he eats...

He had been left with this issue all afternoon, and that night at the center's cafeteria, he seemed awfully tense.

"What's wrong with you Tracey? Not hungry?" Ash asked, noticing the undisturbed grub on the teen's tray.

"Uh? O-oh!" he jumped. "I-it's nothing Ash! Just err... Little slow that's all," he prattled lamely. Ash, being who he was, took the bait, shrugged, and returned to his fork, while Misty seemed... Irritated.

"Well if it's nothing, then I'm off to do some training," Ash spoke, gulping down the last drops of soda in his glass. "My compliment's to Nurse Joy's cooking. Now let's go, Pikachu! We've got to get ready for the next Orange Crew member!" And he ran off happily for the training fields.

"That Ash!" Misty fumed aloud, as Ash ran through the aisles for the door. "Always scarfs his food down, and never lets it settle... He's like his own Snorlax I swear… Well whatever, what's up with you Tracey? You sure something's not wrong?" Tracey's sweat dropped, now it was just him and Misty.

" _It's you really with the problems_ ," he thought to himself nervously. He gulped, took a swig of his soda, and breathed, readying himself. He proceeded to look Misty straight in the eyes, with a serious look on his face.

"Misty!"

"Gaaah!"

"We need to talk – Now."

Misty was quite startled by Tracey's sudden boldness, just a second ago he looked a shivering wreck, now all of a sudden he had a fire in his eyes. " _Much like the flashes of fire in Ash's eyes..._ " Misty thought. "A-alright, b-but what do you need to discuss so urgently?"

"You and Ash," Tracey said. " _Oh man I hope this works, otherwise it's a pillar reef for me_..." Such a thought was now terrifying him, his face read confident, but his inner mind shaking with perpetuating fear.

Misty frowned, confused. "Huh…? What do you mean Tracey? What about me and Ash...? There's nothing really, I'm only following him because he ruined my bike."

But Tracey's boldness continued, he saw all too well through her facade. "C'mon Misty, be honest about your feelings. I err..." his sudden rush of confidence now diminished this he knew was going to be tough matter to push on. "...Noticed... You and him sort of..."

Misty's frown deepened. "We… What?"

"Kinda… Seem to… Like each other…?"

"Tch!" Misty spat. "Ash, loving me?! Ha, don't make me laugh Tracey, Ash is so dense, he never notices anything…"

Tracey frowned at that, he had seen Misty and Ash's blushing moment that afternoon. There was no way…

"But Misty, Ash _does_ like you that way! You'd just have to look harder to see it."

Misty growled at that and. "Nice try Trace, but I've tried looking for hints from him for nearly a year ever since I met him! But he doesn't see anything! I have tried, tried SO hard to be patient with him, but no-…!" she ranted, looking angrily up.

"But he does Misty!" Tracey quickly cut in. Misty's quivering rage stopped, her eyes widened, she turned slowly to look at Tracey.

"...He does?" she asked inquisitively. The notion for her seemed pretty unbelievable.

"He does," Tracey basically repeated. "I um... Saw the way he was looking at you this afternoon... To you it seems he's ignorant, and he is by quite a bit. But I think he also feels nearly the same way as you." Misty remained quiet, her looked said she wanted Tracey to continue his train of thought.

"Um... For example he went through the trouble did he not of spilling out some extra cash to get you your favorite snacks! And he blushed when you smiled at him. Surely that means something. Right?"

Misty sighed. "I don't know if I really do like him Tracey. I just wished he knew more than just bodily actions he expresses without even knowing it. He's just so dense...! But I just wished it was him who could be the one to confess, let alone return his feelings... I just feel he doesn't know about how he feels though, y'know? Or, lately, how I feel…" There was something about the way Misty said this that made it seem less like something she herself was thoughtfully saying, but rather, her tone made it like a stream of consciousness, seemingly built up over time...

Tracey pondered the situation, it was true, while Ash in many ways was a great guy, romance was completely out of his league! Now, Tracey was pretty sure that Misty had no intention of being the one to confront Ash about the whole issue. But, seeing as both he and Ash were guys, maybe, he thought, maybe he could try and coax Ash to confess; if Ash felt the same way that is!

" _It's a risk_ ," Tracey thought to himself. " _But it's worth it, I won't tell Misty what I'm up to. I know it is odd of me to interfere like this, but I'm more than a Pokemon watcher, I can be a human watcher too!_ "

 **O** o **O** o **O**

Ash was out training hard, he had even gotten his lazy Snorlax to participate in battle, but his Charizard… Not so much.

"Pikapi, Pika-i-Chu…"

"Never mind about Charizard, Pikachu…" Ash remarked, "We'll… Get there, someday… Anyways, Snorlax, use Headbutt!"

The big giant Pokémon rushed forward and slammed its head into a rock, hard, causing it to crumble under its weight. Ash was most impressed.

"Great work Snorlax," he cheered. Snorlax looked at its handy work and turned and smiled back at its trainer. It was then that Ash heard footsteps from behind him, it was Tracey and his Marill. "Oh, evening Tracey. What's up? Did you finish your supper?"

"Hmm? O-oh yeah, I ate just fine," Tracey explained, hoping he was convincing enough. Just then, Marill's suddenly went into a bubbly state of happiness, as if to say it had ate well itself. "Yeah! Marill and the rest also ate well."

"Well that's awesome, anyways what brings you here?"

" _Here it goes_ ," Tracey's mind gulped, he could wait, he knew, but given the heat of the moment following that afternoon's revelations, it just couldn't wait. "Hey Ash?" He began, a little too loudly.

"Huh? Oh, what's up Tracey?" Ash said, a little thrown off by Tracey's voice suddenly rising like that.

"Err… Can we talk? Like, this is very important," Tracey faltered a little as he said that, but felt he masked his nerves well enough.

Ash - to Tracey's own relief - just gave a complacent smile. "Oh? Sure thing Tracey, just gimme a moment," he pulled out a Pokéball and pointed it at Snorlax, "okay Snorlax, return." A red beam of energy came out of the white button on the ball, hit Snorlax who then shrunk with a red aura around him, and then went back into the ball.

Once Ash pocketed his Snorlax's Pokéball, Tracey lead him to some deserted tables not too far away. As soon as Ash sat down, Tracey began his business. "Ash, what is Misty to you…?"

Ash stared at Tracey for a moment, completely oblivious to what Tracey was trying to imply. He was just purely confused by what the raven haired teen was asking of him. He racked this all through his brain before cocking his head to the left and simply went, "Huh?"

" _Oh boy…_ " Tracey thought with a groan. "Uh, well… How do you view your relationship with her?"

That got Ash's mind cogs moving (which was a rare case outside of battling). "Well… I suppose I see Misty as my best friend. Sure, she's annoying, wouldn't stop complaining about that bike of hers, she then just sort of followed me around after that. Not that I mind at all."

"Is that all…? She seemed like a lot more when you were Danny and Rudy for their respective gym badges."

"Huh?" Ash again asked. He was still puzzled or what this was about.

Tracey pondered for a second, then, he remembered Ash's earlier disgust at having to mention the name Rudy earlier that day. "Y'know, she did seem to enjoy herself being with Rudy and Danny. A lot more that she was spending time with _you_."

"And it wasn't fair!" Ash suddenly snapped, this, Tracey knew, was the result that he wanted as Ash launched into a catharsis of his own. "All that goo-goo nonsense stuff she showed them! What about me huh?! I was freezing during Danny's gym, and she was more worried about him! Oh, and _Rudy…_ " he spat, "ugh… She never acts like that with me… We've known each other for much longer and she falls head over heels for some complete stranger, stupid, cocky Rudy. What a rude guy, and he says _I'm_ the lucky one, apparently..." Ash finished, choking on those last words, completely disgusted at the memory before turning his head in frustration.

Tracey almost couldn't help but laugh, he decided to hit Ash with his best thought. "So then would you say you yourself Ash, felt jealous because Misty shows you no love?"

Ash's eyes nearly popped out of head, he swung round to face the green shirted teen. "W-what makes you say that?! Completely something I have no feelings for," he sneered.

"Ha! You're not fooling me Ash, you like her, don't ya..?" Tracey pestered. Ash took a moment to look around, to see if the ginger head was around. The place was deserted, save for a few wild Pokémon in the tree's, he tried to say something, but grew red in the face and turned away.

"I…"

" _YES! He's in immature denial!_ " Tracey yelled in his mind.

"Fine," was all Ash said, looking guilty of the evidence. He could've denied it, but it seemed his body was betraying him. "You got me. Not that… Well, she seems to care at all," he muttered before twiddling his index fingers around each other in a subdued manner.

" _Huh, should I spill the beans? Tell him Misty feels the same...? Wait, what did Misty say back with those Nidoran trainers? 'They must really like each other, but are too immature to admit it,' yeah! Something like that, and that's what's going on between these two and... No, this is something they need to do, uuugh but the opportunity is there_ ," Tracey thought. But at the same time, he couldn't help but _want_ to spill his guts out on everything he knew. But decided to not say anything. "Well… uh… You know, you should tell her soon how you feel," he suggested at last.

"But… I doubt she feels the same."

Pikachu stared at his trainer, and face palmed himself, "Pikapi… Pika achu pi…" he groaned.

"Huh?! And what is that suppose to mean buddy?"

Tracey saw an opportunity to intervene on Ash's thought process. "Well, did you ever notice that she may like you back…? Like, she was pretty worried about you back when Squirtle got attacked Rudy's Starmie's Thunderbolt. And she seemed pretty upset earlier today when you called her just 'a friend.' "

"Mm," Ash said thoughtfully.

"...And she was blushing when you gave her her snacks this afternoon."

"Wait, was she?!" Ash exclaimed, a lot louder than what he intended, he didn't know why but the thought for some reason cheered him up. " _And there I thought I was the only feeling embarrassed at that moment_ ," he thought. "I didn't know she was."

"Well she was red in the face as I said. So…"

"So…?"

"...Do you plan on telling her?"

"Oh," Ash said, growing red, deep down he somehow knew Tracey was going to ask him that again, he gave a deep breath. "I-I don't really know…"

"The sooner you do so the better."

Ash looked thoughtful at that, "y-you're right, Tracey. But… like, how do I do that? I'm not about to do all those weird gross mushy-gushy stuff like in the movies, I doubt she'd like that anyways."

Tracey thought again, knowing what he knew of Misty, despite her tomboy tendencies, he had gathered she was still a bit girly from time to time. "I don't know, get down on a knee?"

"What? Uu-ugh, gross, please don't seriously think I'd do something out of a fairy tale book!"

"And I'm not saying you should!" Tracey said, putting his arms up in defense. "Wish I could tell you, but I don't really know what to tell you."

"Well, that's a problem," Ash groaned, digging his frustrated head into his hands. Pikachu just watched the situation, and groaned too… How, he wondered to himself, was Ash this oblivious?

Just then, a rustle was heard from so nearby bushes. The Pokémon, Tracey and Ash - who lifted his head up from his temporary melancholic moment - to see a trainer stagger out of the bushes, a girl to be exact. She was a brunette, her hair stretched down her back, two separate strands either side of her though rested on her front. She had a white hat that had a red line going round the bottom rim but made a Pokémon league symbol of sorts at the front. Her attire was a teal tank top and red skirt, and her socks matched the same teal color as her tank, and her shoes a white pair with a big red line across them horizontally. She also had a yellow traveling bag with her.

She looked a bit of a mess, shades of dirt covered her face and legs, and a few rogue branch scratches covered her legs. She looked pleased to be out of the shrubs. "Whew, am I glad to be out of that," she gasped. She then glanced around quickly before laying her eyes upon the bench where Ash and Tracey were. Tracey actually recognized her.

"Oh hey, you're that girl with the Ivysaur from before! You said you had some training to do, but I wasn't expecting this."

The girl laughed, clearly embarrassed about the whole awkward situation. "Haha… Yeah, see I had heard there was this awesome trainer going about the Orange Island Crew challenge and I wanted to see if I could meet him by intercepting him or something like that. Let alone see him training his Pokémon."

"An awesome Pokémon trainer huh? Who might that be?" Ash was always eager to meet and battle strong trainers, and so to hear of another strong trainer taking on the Orange Island challenge provided an escape for him from his current predicament with Misty.

The new girl smiled at this, "I hear he's pretty cool, and a bit of an underdog. His name's, _Ash Ketchum_."

Ash and Tracey both stared. Ash scratched the back of his neck awkwardly, "Um… Hi, I'm Ash, Ash Ketchum, from Pallet Town. Orange crew challenger," he introduced, somewhat more formerly than what he intended.

The girl gasped and held her hands to her mouth. "Doh! No. Way. I am meeting _the_ Ash Ketchum! Eee!" She squealed, "oh my oh my, a PLEASURE. I-... Wait, I…" she coughed to composed herself. "Hello there, um… My name's Leaf."

 _To Be Continued..._


	3. The Engines That'll Start It

Hey guys! I should note that you should REALLY reread chapter two as that has had to be edited. Anyways, sorry for taking so long to update this story, to sum up what happened, College happened, and this story just has a real annoying story behind, one of just rewrite after rewrite, this one was redo three, because the first draft went completely off track with the direction of the story. Then the second edited draft forgot that Misty was suppose to be CONFLICTED so it lead to rewriting chapter two which resulted in some changes here. And yeah... Let's just get going with this.

* * *

 _The Engines That'll Start It_

"Errrrrruuuuuggghhhhh…!" Misty groaned, exasperated. "Where _did_ those two go off?" She pondered impatiently. It was not long after Ash disappeared during after he finished his own dinner that Tracey then decided to leave her behind, saying something along the lines of having to have an 'important discussion' of sorts with Ash. And so there she was, all by her lonesome self in the center's lobby.

"Pri, togeprri?" Togepi chirped, wondering what was going on.

Misty sighed. "I'm just wondering what's taking them so long. Unless… Team Rocket's about and I didn't hear it?!" she panicked. "No… That can't be it. Ugh! I hate not knowing where Ash is sometimes! Or what he's doing, yeah… all right, that's it! We're going to go find them! Training shouldn't take him that long…"

Misty didn't have to look far, just after she walked out the back door of the Pokémon Center she was expecting to hear Ash shouting at the top of his lungs at some random opponent of his, or the sounds of one of Team Rocket's machines causing some sort of terror, but the battlefields were bare empty, and the night air was peaceful. As she looked, she saw off to the sides at the bottom of the Poke center's property line the very benches where she recognized a blue jacket and a teal shirt. "Oh, so there you two are, I was-… HUH?!"

There was Ash – the boy she found herself of all people liking. That dense idiot who fought a bird with a bug, and pinned an electric rat against a giant rock snake Pokémon – was talking with, _another girl_ , and _oh no_ , she was pretty, and way more girly than what Misty knew she could match up to… In other words, she definitely looked like competition. As if trying to get Ash's attention wasn't hard enough for her already.

"Oh. Hiya Misty!" Ash called, standing up in respect for her. He motioned to the brunette who was sitting next to him. "Misty, this is Leaf, a trainer from… I'm sorry, where did you say you were from?"

 _Leaf_ giggled, it sent a chill down Misty's spine – she was never good at controlling her jealousy. "Oh Ash, you're such a ditz," Leaf snickered, "I'm from Celadon City. I just recently came here to expand my horizons after hearing about these regional variant Pokémon that are said to live out here."

"Um…" Misty began, "It's a pleasure, Leaf." " _Oh come on Misty, get yourself together_ ," she inwardly scolded herself, " _You_ barely _know her. This Leaf seems nice enough. I guess…_ " It was then Ash invited her to sit down, and whilst admittedly there was far more room next to Tracey who was sitting across from Ash and Leaf, Misty quickly walked around the table to join Ash on his right side.

Leaf found herself curious by this choice of seating, but chose not to acknowledge it since Ash and Tracey weren't saying anything about it themselves.

Ash awkwardly rubbed the back of his neck before turning to Misty, a slight blush on the bridge of his nose. "So, guess you got bored waiting on us, huh?"

"What do you think?" she snapped moodily, glaring at both Ash and Tracey. "Leaving me behind without any explanation? I was starting to worry you know?!" With that last remark she stared coldly at Ash, annoyed, and also feeling a mixture of hurt at feeling forgotten about.

"Sorry," Ash then murmured, "Guess me and Tracey got so caught up in talking to Leaf we…" But another cold glare from Misty told Ash he was better off not continuing that sentence. "L-listen," he muttered, "Do NOT get the idea that we were beginning to like Leaf more than we like you. We care about you a lot too y'know? It's just… We got caught up in having someone new to talk to for the first time in a while."

"Tch," Misty huffed, still feeling hurt, "You _would_ need to vary up who you talk Ash. You're world is so small, having someone new to talk to must be a cause for a celebration, considering just how few and far your interactions with others have been lately."

"Hey!" Ash snapped back. "That's mean, Mist!" Misty felt a chill go up her spine at the use of her nickname, the one that only Ash was allowed to use...

"And besides," Ash grilled on. "Like you can talk, following me as long as you have. I've probably talked to just as many people as you have on this journey."

"Hey! At least _my_ introduction to someone isn't by stealing and frying girls' bikes!"

"Will you knock it off about your bike?! And it was just you that that happened to!"

"You still owe me!" " _I don't mean that Ash, please don't take that seriously… It's just an excuse to be with you. But no person should be as dense as you can be… I guess I'm just not sure, even after what Tracey said…_ " Misty quickly thought.

"At least I don't grill every single trainer who shows some dislike for water types as much as you do!"

"You're a kid with a Charizard who refuses to listen to him!"

"And you have a Psyduck who can't even swim! And you call yourself a water type expert…" " _Eh, no… You're… You're pretty cool actually Misty…And that's well… Why I…Nevermind actually, we're arguing at the moment anyways._ "

"… So says Mr. Pokémon Master who only has just a few Pokémon to his name!"

"Oh, like you can talk! You…"

Tracey was so busy staring at the two 'friends' bickering against each other, he didn't notice Leaf's huge smile as she watched the two grilling each other.

"Say," she said loudly, standing up and getting between the two trainers, placed her hands on their shoulders, and gently pushed them away from each other, the two stop their rabble and turned their attention on Leaf.

"Ash… Didn't you promise me we were going to battle?" she continued sweetly, she smirked inwardly when out of the corner of her eye, she saw a scowl form on Misty's complexion.

"Huh? Oh yeah! Of course, how many Pokémon do you want to battle with?"

"One-on-one is fine with me. Besides, I'm not exactly much of a trainer to be truthful, c-compared to you that is… What with you taking the challenge and all to compete in the Orange League."

Misty lowly growled at that. "That little… Watch Tracey, she's only luring Ash into a trap, I bet she's just waiting to blow the socks off of him…"

Tracey sweat dropped at that. "I-if you say so, Misty…"

Meanwhile the two trainers got onto either side of the battlefield. Misty and Tracey watched from the sides. "Ladies first!" Ash called.

"Aw thanks Ash," Leaf said with a flirty wink, Misty's eyebrow twitched malignantly at that. "All right, go, Jigglypuff!"

Ash had been prepared in case she had brought out her Ivysaur, but this time she brought out a Pokémon he didn't know she had. Perfect, he thought. He had been meaning to give this guy some more training in a while.

"Bulbasaur, I choose you!" Ash grunted, giving a usual passionate throw of his ball.

"You can do it Ash…" Misty muttered under her breath as the two trainers prepared to start the battle.

"Jigglypuff, start off with your DoubleSlap attack!" Leaf called out. Her Jigglypuff ran towards Bulbasaur at a fast speed, its hands ready to launch the attack.

"Bulbasaur, use Razor Leaf!" Ash countered. Bulbasaur tried to dodge, but grunted as it took one of the DoubleSlap's, but fired back with its equally quick Razor Leaf attack, Jigglypuff cried out as it took the brunt of the attack.

Leaf grimaced as she watched her Pokémon take the damage. "Okay then… Try a Double-Edge!"

"Puff!" the balloon Pokémon cried in confirmation and leaped forward.

"Catch it with Vine Whip!" Ash yelled, Bulbasuar did exactly that, Jigglypuff just barely making contact with Bulbasaur's head in the process. "Okay, now throw Jigglypuff!"

"Bulba… SAUR!" Bulbasaur grunted as it performed the task.

"Use Razor Leaf!" was Ash's follow up command. Bulbasaur launching the attack flawlessly.

Leaf smirked, her chance was now! "Jigglypuff! Ice Beam!"

Jigglypuff quickly opened her mouth, and charged up the bright blue ball and fired the Ice Beam, but not before taking the Razor Leaf attack. Ash panicked as Bulbasaur took the Ice Beam, which he quickly shook off.

"Wow," Leaf muttered to herself, "Bulbasaur hung in… No surprise there I guess."

"I knew it!" Misty groaned. "She _did_ have a tactic going into this battle."

But Ash was far from done. "So… It has Ice Beam huh, we'll just have to be careful then Bulbasaur… Leech Seed, Bulbasaur!"

" 'Saur!" And before Leaf knew it, Jigglypuff got tangled in some roots and began to suck the energy from Jigglypuff.

"Oh no!" she gasped. "Disable!" Jigglypuff's eyes glowed, stopping Bulbasaur from using Leech Seed from then on – Ash, Misty, and Tracey all knew she just made a mistake. "Now use DoubleSlap"

"Dodge, and use Razor Leaf!"

This time Bulbasaur fully dodged the DoubleSlap, and quickly hit Jigglypuff with its Razor Leaf attack. Leaf herself was starting to realize just how outmatched her and Jigglypuff were in the battle… "It's now or never for even a chance with this battle," she grimaced, "Jigglypuff, Ice Beam!"

Ash remained calm and collected as he ordered his next attack as Jigglypuff prepared Ice Beam. "Dodge it and knock it down with Vine Whip!"

Bulbasaur quickly shot its vines out of its back and dropped to the battlefield as the Ice Beam barely hit it. The Ice Beam however had to be grimly dodged by Ash and Pikachu as they jumped out of the way of it. Jigglypuff got sent flying into the air after Vine Whip made contact with her.

"Now Bulbasaur, finish this with Razor Leaf!" Ash called.

Bulbasaur once again performed the move, and Jigglypuff with nowhere to hide got hit and fell to the field, bounced a bit before lying before Leaf on her back with swirls in her eyes, signifying she couldn't battle anymore. Leaf sighed. "Well, that's that I guess. Thank you Jigglypuff, you were great."

Ash too thanked his longtime friend and he too recalled it back to its Pokéball. He then walked over to meet Leaf and stuck his hand out. "Great battle Leaf," he smiled.

"Thanks Ash," Leaf said shaking his hand, "Although… I really didn't stand a chance against you honestly. The rumors of your skills really do live up to expectations."

"Jeez," another female voice said, it was Misty's voice as she and Tracey walked up towards Ash. "Don't go and praise him too much Leaf, otherwise you'll never hear the end of it, and then you'll end up seeing just how much of a loser he can be."

"Misty," Ash whined, "I'm not that incompetent y'know…?"

"I know," Misty replied, giving Ash a meaningful look, "Just don't think you can take every challenger on and win."

"I'm still stronger than you think I am though…" he responded, the hurt evident in his voice.

Misty's expression softened at that as she looked down to look him in the eyes. "You're not that bad, just remember that not every battle will ever be easy as the last."

"Fair enough…" Ash murmured, giving a content smile up at her. Misty just smiled at that, and Ash turned humbly away, a slight blush on his face. All the while Leaf watched the interaction with interest.

Ever since she met Misty just a few minutes ago, Leaf couldn't help but… Sense something between Ash and her, and as bad as their little squabble had been from a few minutes ago, undeniably, there was something about the way they bickered that definitely didn't strike it as malicious.

On top of that, Ash paid her a lot of attention, referred to her multiple times like he was worried he might say something stupid, or the way this Misty reacted in his presence… " _I wonder_ ," Leaf thought carefully, " _I mean… It's almost fairly obvious. This Misty is totally into Ash, oh my gosh! It's practically the perfect romance! She blushes in front of him and got really defensive when I tried to talk to him, it's so obvious…But does Ash not notice her or, but he does look in her direction a lot…_ "

"Leaf?"

"Huh, o-oh what?" Leaf stammered, she looked into up to see Misty staring at her.

"Are you okay?" the older girl politely asked. "You were spacing out just now. Is something the matter?"

Leaf shifted awkwardly a bit, hoping that she hadn't been too obvious with her inner romantic side, she was often told that her nowhere gaze gave it away by her parents, and often by her other friends, but was Misty able to see that…? Leaf then looked up at Misty – Jeez, she thought, this Misty sure is tall, especially compared to her nearly eleven year old self, Misty was even taller than Ash by some three inches – and saw how genuinely worried she was – relieved that her thoughts weren't obvious, Leaf just smiled innocently.

"I'm fine," Leaf said, "Just… Thinking, that's all."

"That's okay," Misty beamed, "Anyways, it's getting late. C'mon Ash, it's time we got to bed. Same applies to you, Tracey."

"Coming," the two males responded, before they both realized...

"Leaf?" Tracey asked. "Do you have a room to stay in tonight? When we checked in, Nurse Joy said that soon she won't be able to check in more trainers, the place was almost fully booked for the night."

Leaf was about to reply that she did, but then realized, she hadn't actually asked for a room! "Oh no!" she shrieked. "I completely forgot to get one this afternoon!"

The others sweat dropped at that. "Well…" Tracey awkwardly said, "If it's any help, our room does have a spare bed…"

"Yeah," Ash offered, "You could stay with us for the night. What d'you think, Mist?"

"T-that's fine," Misty murmured, her words getting slightly caught in her throat as she had spoken. But no one seemed to have noticed it. "Yeah, sure, you can stay in our room tonight Leaf, we'll be heading out tomorrow anyways."

"Thank you so much!" Leaf squeaked. " _And…_ " she thought gleefully, " _It gives me the opportunity to see just exactly what is up with you two…_ "

 **O** o **O** o **O**

Leaf quickly dropped her stuff off in Ash, Misty, and Tracey's room and thanked them once more for their hospitality and quickly went to go scrape some dinner from the cafeteria – apparently she had be fueling herself since the afternoon on just snacks alone since she had gotten lost looking for Ash. Tracey meanwhile wanted to go observe some of the other trainers' Pokémon some more from the lobby, leaving Ash and Misty alone in the room.

They were just standing around at first, feeling awkward, but soon were just leaning on the window sill, busy stargazing together as was their usual custom, to enhance the experience they elected to turn the rooms lights out to make it easier to watch the sky.

"Hey… Those stars when put together kinda form a Butterfree, don't you think, Ash?" Misty commented, pointing to a patch of stars.

"Yeah, they do when you think about it," Ash laughed, looking at where Misty was pointing to.

"Yeah…" Misty went on, trailing off since she wasn't sure what to say next. She looked at Ash and was left to think upon her earlier conversation with Tracey that evening. What if he did indeed like her the same way she did for him? It was a pleasant thought yes, but… She was left to wonder though if Ash even fully understood what he might feel for her, but she couldn't deny how he had been incredibly jealous back with Danny and Rudy, Misty wouldn't admit it out loud, but she did feel rather silly for her brief infatuation with Danny, then again, it wasn't every day that someone complimented her because of her name…

And as for Rudy… He liked her, and based on all of the actions Rudy had taken to show her that attention he so greatly wanted to show her, Rudy managed to pile on a lot of things for Misty to feel attached to. But in the end, she still went with Ash, because that's what her heart had told her to do.

And when that Leaf girl had gone and showed up into the picture… Now Misty really wasn't sure what to feel, she hated Leaf. Not because of the girl personally, but the very fact that Ash had been seen sitting next to her and laughing with her, it just made Misty's blood boil, she had a feeling she now knew what Ash felt like back with the two male gym leaders…

"Is something the matter, Misty?" his voice cut through her thoughts and she quickly looked up. Ash had gotten much closer to her face than he was a few moments ago; a concerned look etched across his features, Misty couldn't help but take notice. His brown eyes reflected the moonlight and it awed her with how pretty it made him look, she always did like his brown eyes in a way.

She didn't know it, but even though it wasn't exactly on his conscious, but Ash too was also being entranced by the way her eyes were looking in the moonlight's glow.

"… You were, um," Ash muttered, "Looking _lost_ I guess you could say, in thought." All the while Ash was getting even closer to her.

"No, I'm fine Ash…" Misty said thoughtlessly, placing a hand of her on his arm slowly, Ash didn't even flinch.

They just stared for a bit at each other, not saying anything. The silence looked painful, but to them it almost seemed too loud, Ash then broke it, but still spoke whilst entranced. "Y'know, Tracey mentioned something funny to me earlier today," he muttered, his gaze failing to break.

"Yeah… Tracey told me something weird today as well…" she replied, looking at him as she leaned down to close the gap between their heads inch by inch before continuing. "Tracey told me…" Just then they heard the door creak open and the lights of the room turned on, causing the both of them to jump in surprise!

"Ash, Misty? Can I...? Uh, what's going on here?" The two trainers looked over, there standing in front of the doors entrance was Leaf, her hand still on the light switch, her facial features clearly telling that she had no idea what she walked in on. "Were you two about to…?"

"DON'T SCARE US LIKE THAT!" Misty then shouted at her. "You could've at least knocked you know!" Misty could feel her blood heating up, she was close, _so_ close to finally saying something, it was their moment, and the setting couldn't have been more romantic in her view if she had tried. But then she sighed, realizing that maybe Leaf's interruption could've been completely innocent, " _But then what was that last comment about?_ " She thought.

"Well… It looked like you two were about to kiss…" Leaf said awkwardly.

"WHAT!" both and Ash and Misty cried at the same time. "N-n-no way!" Misty stammered. "You got it all wrong, we were stargazing together!"

"If you say so…" Leaf muttered to herself, blushing the whole while, she felt so stupid for accidently ruining what looked like their moment. "Um anyways," Leaf quickly said, remembering what she needed, "Do either of you have some tooth floss I can use?"

"Yeah…" Misty grumbled, "Lemme get it for you…" she made her way over to her bag, glancing at Ash out of the corner of her eyes with a grimace. " _So much for an opportunity_ ," she thought, " _At least if I had stayed with_ _Rudy we wouldn't get interrupted randomly._ If _I even liked him to begin with… But… What if… What if I did tell Ash I liked him… Would we have not gotten interrupted? Or was Ash even thinking the same thing I was in the first place…?_ " As Misty thought this, she failed to notice how disappointed Ash was looking himself…

Meanwhile, out on the road, Team Rocket was slowly trudging along, exhausted.

"Darn twerps," James grumbled, "Every time you want to find them, nowhere to be found."

"You's got dat right Jimmy," Meowth agreed. "Jus' how long has it been since we lost track o' dem?"

James pondered. But Jessie interrupted him. "We've lost sight of the twerps ever since this morning, dummies."

"So… We've been going this entire time not knowing where they're going?" James asked incredulously.

"Not since _someone_ accidently destroyed our balloon because he picked a fight with the nearby wild Pokémon!" Jessie snapped, glaring at Meowth.

The feline was about retort, when James' voice cut him off. "Look chums!" he cried. "A nearby town and Pokémon center over yonder!"

"You's wanna bet dat da twerps are o'er in dere?" Meowth muttered, eying the center.

"Where else would they be?" James retorted.

"Doesn't matter…" Jessie then said, causing the two males to look at her in surprise.

"How do you mean Jess?" James wondered.

"That's a Pokémon center, the only one so far in miles. Meaning we have a high chance that lots of travelling trainers will be resting there tonight, meaning," Jessie said, an evil, mischievous glint coming into her eyes. "That we have the perfect prime opportunity to steal every one of those trainers' Pokémon from right under them for the boss!"

"Yeah!" Meowth cheered. "Who cares if the twerps are still dere or not…"

"Highly trained Pokémon we could steal on the fly would put money in our pockets all the same!" James concluded.

"Time ta put our plan together then, ready for some 'clingy' action…" Meowth sniggered.

 _To be continued…_


	4. Prepare For Trouble!

_Prepare For Trouble!_

It was lucky that the rest of the night went without a hitch for the four roommates that night, and by the time they had all woken up, they found things hadn't changed at all.

They went to breakfast together at the cafeteria, and Misty was just thankful that Leaf wasn't getting on her nerves for once, whether it was from the brunette's clumsiness – the darn girl had to do the equivalent of a whole traipse act just to prevent her cup of opened fruit from spilling onto the floor whilst in line, even though she could've just pushed an arm forward to catch the plastic cup – her annoying little tittering from time to time, or more importantly, the thing Misty was glad Leaf didn't do was… Annoying the poor ginger-head by being too-close-for-comfort when it came to interacting with Ash…

Misty would've gladly pulled out her mallet if that happened. Which luckily, from the time the group had woken up, waited their individual turn to use the washroom, and filing to the cafeteria, had gone without mishap, or anything that would've made her jealous, so there was no need for that.

At first the group at in silence, but when asked about their plans going forward today, Ash had said they were going to hit the road once more, but Leaf had been extremely insistent that visiting the nearby shopping center would be way more fun than hitchhiking once more. "…And besides, you can go training against the local trainers in the square. It'll be fun!"

"All right," Ash said with a smile, "Nothing wrong with taking a break from travelling every now and then, right guys?"

"Yeah, we could do with a supply restock anyways," Tracey continued.

"Fine by me," Misty murmured, not at all pleased by how Leaf was starting to dictate their agenda… Not that they had any to begin with however. But she still felt riled up for a different reason, " _Why do you have this effect on me, Leaf? I don't even know why I bother - it's clear Ash doesn't see you that way, but then… why do you make me feel so jealous around him…? Curse you Ash, why do you_ _have this effect on me…?_ "

"Misty?" the voice was directed at her, and once more she found that she once again had to be brought back to the present. She really was spacing out a lot because of just Ash lately, wasn't she?

She turned to see Ash's concerned look at her, she felt an odd tug in her stomach when she locked with his eyes and gulped a little inwardly. "Y-yeah?" she muttered.

"Toge toge…?" Togepi muttered, looking up at ther.

"You were spacing out, again…"

"Oh, sorry..."

"Are you feeling unwell?" Ash continued. "Maybe you should stay behind, I'd rather you didn't catch a cold or worsen whatever it is that you're feeling."

Misty stared. Ash's eyes practically said everything, concern for her well-being; it touched her that he could care so much sometimes.

"N-no," she eventually said, "I'm actually fine, I swear it." Well, physically and in terms of her health she was fine, mentally… It was pretty grey. But right now she knew that her unstable mental condition was really starting to concern everyone.

"Misty…" Ash finally said, "Be honest, please? Are you, or are you not, okay?" Frustrated at her distractions, he didn't even wait for a response. He reached with a bare hand placed it on her forehead to check her temp. Misty went red in the face from the touch, but Ash didn't feel anything out of the ordinary, her temp was normal.

"Well, at least you're okay in that department. Cheer up, Misty! You've been way too gloomy as of late."

Misty scowled at that. "I'm fine, and besides you're hardly qualified to say anything about health if you couldn't even understand Pikachu's own illnesses from time to time, Ash Ketchum," she snapped, swatting Ash's shoulder before flicking his nose and turning around to huff, pleased at having masked her emotions so well.

"Ouch," was all Ash had to say. Getting some light physical abuse from Misty? Yup, things were normal with her. "Awesome," Ash then said out loud, after contemplating how normal their interaction had just been. "Passing off as my brother again? That's the Misty I know!"

Tracey and Leaf just sweat dropped at that…

Misty meanwhile said nothing, but allowed herself to acknowledge that she was blushing at that. _That's the Misty I know_ … Ash's words played on her mind, would this always be how they interacted, was this how he wanted it? She thought, if only she knew what _she_ really wanted…

 **OoOoO**

The group headed out not long after that and spent time at the local mall. During which Leaf and Misty found they weren't that different when it came to their love for shopping – and poor Ash and Tracey had to carry all their bags of new clothes and other accessories.

"Ugh," Ash would groan whenever Leaf pointed towards a sale and would get Misty to drag the boys along. He turned to Tracey after the fifth time. "If only Leaf wasn't here giving Misty shopping ideas. Tch, I much prefer Misty when she's acting more like a Tom boy rather than a girly girl… This shopping thing sucks."

Tracey's sweat dropped. "Well we're going to have to tolerate it for now, otherwise we'll have some very scornful girls on our cases…"

"Yeah yeah… I hear ya," Ash sighed. Just then, some females' voices were heard.

"Tracey, move it! There's a sale on travelling bags over here!" Leaf yelled near another store front.

"Yeah, c'mon over here, Ash!" Misty chirped from right next to her. "Pick up the pace won't ya?! New backpacks for us all, isn't that exciting?!"

"This is going to be a lo-oo-ong day…" Ash groaned as he stalked off towards the store. "My arms are going to be disconnected from my shoulders by the end of all this I swear…"

"For someone who likes the girl asking him to carry her bags, you sure grumble a lot about it," Tracey then remarked cautiously.

Ash went red in the face, and simply glanced away. "Well if I'm to be honest I prefer Misty when she's acting like a tom-boy and not under a girly shopping influence. So shut up," was all he had to say.

 **OoOoO**

Luckily, it wasn't long till the girls felt exhausted of all their exploration and the need to return to the Pokémon Center to rest came sooner than expected, much to Ash and Tracey's arms relief.

But on their way back along the dirt path the saw an interesting sight. "Wow," Ash quipped when he saw it, "Some crowd over there. I wonder what's going on there."

Ash and co. made their way to back of the crowd, only to be surprised – and not surprised at all – by what they saw.

With clothes being tossed into the air before what appeared to be some sort of Pokéball cleaning service, there stood three individuals Ash, Misty, and Tracey all gasped in surprise to see! "Well, that's typical, I guess," Tracey muttered before Ash and Misty nodded in agreement.

The three criminals – who the trainers at the front were angry with for apparently 'taking too long' with their promised service – then jumped into their rickety looking wooden shack which took the form of a yellow and silver robot before the villains were then seen at the top of the machine.

"Prepare for trouble!" the one with crimson hair began.

"And make it double!" the one with lavender hair continued.

"To protect the world from devastation!"

"To unite all peoples within our nation!"

"To denounce the evils of truth and love!"

"To extend our reach to the stars above!"

"Jessie!"

"James!"

"Team Rocket, blast off at the speed of light!"

"Surrender now, or prepare to fight!"

"Meowth! That's right!" a Meowth then said victoriously.

Leaf looked a bit surprise. "Team Rocket?" she asked incredulously.

"Bunch of bad guys who steal other people's Pokémon, that's who," Ash answered bitterly.

"They're the worse," Misty scowled.

"Yeah, what's say we go and stop them guys?" Ash said, looking to his two travelling companions.

"Let's," Misty and Tracey responded in unison.

"I'd like to help too!" Leaf quickly said.

With that the four trainers barged their way through the crowd and towards Team Rocket's machine which was currently revealing two mechanical arms with claw like hands and were currently grabbing at the other trainers for their Pokéballs and the bins – where some trainers had left their balls to be stored.

"You won't get away with this, Team Rocket!" Ash shouted.

"It's the twerps!" Team Rocket shouted in unison.

"Figures you'd show up at a time like this," Jessie scowled.

"Yeah, well too bad they'ze too late to stop us now!" Meowth snickered.

"Oh yeah?" Ash shouted. He looked to his buddy atop his shoulder. "Ready, Pikachu? Use Thunder!"

Pikachu jumped into the air to launch the attack. But then…

"Oh no, you don't!" Meowth shouted, quickly moving a joystick around which activated one of the arms which latched onto Pikachu. Pikachu tried a Thunder, but instead the machine seemed to have absorbed the attack before clamping onto Pikachu.

"Haha!" James laughed. "I always did like helpless twerps!"

Ash's eyes told he was surprised and irritated by what happened. "Why I oughta…! Pikachu!" And with that Ash was about to run up when an arm stopped him by grabbing his hand.

"Let me help you, Ash!" Misty said to him, restraining him, before raising a Pokéball of her own. "Don't try anything brash on your own, please. If the four of us attack them all at once, then Team Rocket won't know what hit them!"

"Yeah!" Tracey cheered, throwing a ball. "Go, Scyther!"

"Ivysaur!" Leaf yelled. "Let's do this!"

Misty then raised a ball of her own, just as Ash did the same. "Staryu, I choose you!" she called.

"Squirtle, I choose you!" Ash called, the both of them having done a similar throw and at the same time. It caused them both to feel slightly embarrassed at the synchrony of their action. But quickly they brushed it off, now wasn't the time when they had to stop Team Rocket.

"Ivysaur," Leaf yelled, when a mech arm approached them. "Use Vine Whip!" Her grass type quickly blew the arm back.

Meanwhile Scyther and Tracey were having similar luck countering Team Rocket's machine. Ash and Misty meanwhile worked together with their water types in trying to get Pikachu back.

"Staryu, Bubblebeam!" Misty yelled, her intent not only to get the other trainers' Pokémon back to them, but to stop Team Rocket for once again raining havoc. But deeply, she felt rage at Team Rocket for hurting Ash's beloved Pikachu, it hurt to see Ash's best buddy in pain, and she could tell Ash wasn't too pleased either.

Her star Pokémon launched the attack whilst Ash's Squirtle used Water Gun alongside to attack the robotic appendages.

"Interfering twerps!" James grumbled. "Victreebel, go!" James' grass type appeared but then quickly U-turned towards its trainer and bit down on his head. "Oh!" he yelled, "Not me you hungry idiot! Them! And use Razor Leaf!"

Victreebel fired the attack, but Ash managed to prevent Staryu from getting hurt by having Squirtle use Hydro Pump. "Follow that with Skull Bash!" Ash yelled.

"Hit it with your Rapid Spin, Staryu!" Misty called, as Ash's Squirtle hit Victreebel hard, Staryu 'hyahed' and quickly spun its own body into the Flycatcher Pokémon leaving it dazed and surprised.

Because of their vicious assault, and in the midst of James recalling his Pokémon and sobbing over it, Ash saw an opening to go for Pikachu. "I'm coming, buddy!" he yelled, jumping up towards the robots arms and climbed up towards him.

It was then that Jessie saw this. "Oh no the twerp doesn't! Meowth, deal with him once and for all," she ended with a smirk.

"Huh?" James asked, blinking, what did Jessie mean by 'deal with him once and for all'?

"Yeah, yeah, yeah!" Meowth jeered as he pressed a button on his control pad.

It was then that a fifth arm revealed itself from the back of the machine, along with a cage from the 'stomach' area of the machine. Ash saw this, but was too late as the claw grabbed him. "Waah!" he yelled, startled as the claw took a firm hold on him and hoisted him into the air.

Misty's eyes couldn't be wider as she watched Ash being armed by the machine, her heart instantly beating with fear and worry for him as another arm reached out and grabbed Squirtle.

"Ash!" she yelled, feeling helpless, she watched as Ash grit his teeth from the pain, the resolve for the other trainers' Pokémon suddenly gone. She ran up towards the machine. "You let him go now, you cowards!" she yelled at the top of her lungs, her eyes on the brink of tears. No one got to hurt Ash in her mind except her if he deserved it, Togepi also expressed his worries at the scene before him.

"No way!" Jessie sneered, glaring at Misty. "Twerp here has caused us too many problems in the past for us to just let him go. We're putting a cork in your interferences from now on, and we'll do so by stopping the one who _always_ is the catalyst for our troubles. And that includes you, twerpette." With a click of a button she launched one of the other arms at the ginger-head much to her own shock. She was paralyzed.

"Misty!" Ash yelled, turning his head to see she was in danger.

"IVYSAUR, VINE WHIP!" came a yell from Leaf. And with that her grass-type jumped in front of Misty and shielded her from the arm with its vines.

"Tch," Jessie scowled, "Whatever, we got what we wanted. Throw the twerp into the cage and seal off his Pokémon. "

"Right," Meowth said, now unsure as the robotic arm lifted Ash and tossed him with a thud into the cage.

As that happened, Jessie smirked. "Now, go distract the twerps, Arbok!" The purple cobra Pokémon appeared and fired a Poison Sting attack which caused Leaf to call back Ivysaur and the remaining trio to retreat from the scene.

Misty could only watch, trembling when she noticed that when Ash fell into the cage, his eyes full of fear and worry as the cage was swallowed back into the machine. "Help!" was all he could say.

Pikachu and Squirtle were then pulled into the machine as well, both shouting their names indignantly as the machine suddenly sprouted jets, and then flew off.

"Is everyone okay?" Leaf asked, worried as she checked her Ivysaur over.

"Scyther's okay," Tracey said. He then looked over at Misty, whose head was hung down, her shoulders trembled, a hand went to her mouth as she cupped it, something she did when all she felt was grief. She began to look up before something caught her eye. She ran towards it, it was a baseball cap, Leaf's and Tracey's eyes widened as they recognized Ash's ball cap.

Misty put Togepi down before she picked it up, and held it close to her, she cried into it, sniffing at Ash's familiar scent. " _It's my fault_ ," she thought, she felt so guilty. She felt guilty because she felt she could've stopped him from getting kidnapped. " _I have to fix this_ ," she thought, as she realized moping around wasn't going to be of any help to Ash's current predicament.

Misty stood up, still cradling the hat, and then suddenly took off running!

"H-hey!" Tracey cried out, he ran towards the running ginger-head and just managed to catch her.

"WHAT'RE YOU DOING?!" she yelled, turning around to face Tracey, rage in her eyes at being held back.

"What're _you_ doing?!" Tracey bit back. Misty yanked her arm out of Tracey's grip before turning away, trembling.

"I'm going to save Ash!" she shouted, "He's currently in Team Rocket's grasp, and… who knows what they plan on doing with him… It's my fault," she sobbed, "I could've stopped them from hurting Ash, he didn't deserve that…"

"Misty…" Tracey began, "It's wasn't your fault about what happened."

"It is though! And Ash needs me!" Misty cut in. "I'll find them, and get Ash back! Then they'll pay for what they did to him! … Oh Ash…" she then sobbed again, fearing what might be happening.

It was then Leaf finally caught up, panting when she did. "But… Misty…" she said between breathes. "Don't… Forget… The… Pokeballs…"

"Huh? O-oh right!" she said, awkwardly rubbing the back of her head as she remembered the main thing Team Rocket just stole.

"Well, knowing Team Rocket, they couldn't have gotten too far," Tracey speculated as he dug into his pockets. "And I know just the way we can locate them and get back the stolen Pokeballs. C'mon out, Marill!"

With a flash his aqua mouse partner appeared and gave a cheery greeting. But when she looked around, she noticed Misty's sad look, and then the hat without its owner.

"Marill," Tracey said, "We need to find Team Rocket, can you pick up the sounds of fuel jets for us?"

Marill nodded, and then cocked her ears in all directions before pointing towards a nearby forest. "Thanks Marill! Let's go!"

"Yeah," both girls said in agreement.

And as they ran off, Leaf thought of all the trainers who were currently worried about their stolen Pokémon.

Tracey thought the same way, and about Ash and his captured Pokémon.

And Misty… Misty's only concern at the moment was for Ash's well-being, and Ash's alone. " _Don't worry Ash,_ " she thought, " _I'm coming for you. Misty's coming, I'll save you, no matter what! Team Rocket will pay for what they've done to you!"_

 _To be continued…_


	5. Misty Kicks it like it's 1986

_Misty Kicks it like it's 1986_

Ash stared helplessly in front of him, the bars of this cage he couldn't break by just ramming them, and trying to use Bulbasaur to use Razor Leaf was no help either. He felt the ship land just a few moments ago, nearby were Pikachu and Squirtle in their respective cages. Ash shuddered crossly – he hated this feeling of helplessness.

Just then light came flooding into the room. Ash looked up irritably.

"Well, twerp," Jessie greeted coldly, "it wouldn't make sense for us to kidnap you and not try to take away your remaining Pokémon, would it?"

"You won't get away with this, Team Rocket!" Ash bit back.

"Oh, yous think so?" Meowth enquired.

"I think we already have," James finished smugly. "After all, you're the one currently trapped, not us."

"Care to do the honors, Meowth?" Jessie went on, Ash gritted his teeth.

"With pleasure," the feline Pokémon snickered. He pulled out a machine, clicked a button, and even though Ash tried to stop them, it didn't stop the machine from sucking Ash's other four Pokéball's away from his grasp.

The trio laughed and then went off to begin picking up boxes. "Why do we have to sort through these again?" James groaned.

"The boss said so," Jessie said sharply. "He wants all of our captured Pokémon sorted through to make the registration process easier."

All Ash could do was watch as the crooks left the robot and went out, all he could was sit, wait, and hope that help would come soon…

 **O** o **O** o **O**

Meanwhile the Misty and the others were racing through the woods following Marill, Misty's face was scrunched up in a bitter way. She was going to teach that Team Rocket their final lesson.

Just then Marill stopped; Misty's heart began beating in a strange way as a sense of dread came over her. Surely this didn't mean that Team Rocket got out of Marill's hearing range?

"Marill, what's up?" Tracey asked. The Water type took a look at her surroundings and twitched her ears before turning her full attention to the right of their current path and pointed. "That's where Team Rocket's jets took them?"

"Marill rill!" she confirmed.

"We don't have a moment to lose," Leaf remarked. "But…"

"But what?" Misty started impatiently.

"Do you… Think we're prepared to take them on again?"

"What do you mean?" Misty asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Well, it's just that… even though we were holding our own back there at the center, it was obvious we just barely were if they were able to capture Ash and his Pokémon," Leaf murmured, rubbing her arm awkwardly.

"Yeah, I'd have to agree," Tracey admitted. "We just managed to prevent them from stealing all of our Pokémon, but it's clear they've gotten sharper if they stopped and captured Ash's Pikachu so quickly."

"Well we'll just have to make sure that doesn't happen again," Misty retorted, turning to go back on the hunt. "They won once, but not this time…"

"She's awfully determined," Leaf said quietly to Tracey.

"She is usually determined and headstrong," Tracey replied, rubbing his chin in thought, "but not to this extent. I suspect it's become personal because of Ash."

"You think so?" Tracey nodded. "Wow…"

" _I'll show them to mess with Ash…_ " Misty angrily thought. " _That idiot thought he could handle things,_ now _look that what that has gotten him into! I'll fix it though, for him… AND THE POKÉMON TOO!_ " she quickly added.

Misty took a moment to look at Ash's hat, then at Togepi. "If it wasn't for Ash," she said softly, "I wouldn't have met you, Togepi. If I… If I had been stupid enough to stay with Rudy, I wouldn't be around to…" her eyes widened as it hit her. Just yesterday morning she had woken up feeling regret over how she had chosen to follow Ash around as opposed to potentially starting a new relationship with Rudy by choosing to stay on Trovita Island.

Misty's eyes watered up as she realized how stupid that decision could've been, Ash, her best friend, was brash, reckless, lacked self-preservation skills, and was a real jerk to her sometimes. But all the same, she realized that _she_ balanced all of that out. Sure, she herself could be mean, violent, hot headed… but she cared about him, loved him. All she wanted was for him to be safe.

She could remember all the times since meeting him where she had to rush in to grab him to save him from all sorts of terrible fates, Beedrills, drowning, giant Gengars… and he often saved her from those situations himself, she knew she didn't say it enough, but she was always grateful that he was there for her.

"…T-to always be there for him…to… keep him safe," she finished, after her epiphany struck her, and it struck her hard, she knew what she had to do. She wiped her eyes quickly. "Team Rocket," she growled, "you lay one finger on Ash, and I'll hurt you so bad so help me!"

 **OoOoO**

"Ooo ahh!" James cried out, frightened.

"Waz up, Jimbo?" Meowth asked, creeped out by James' sudden yelp.

James took a moment to rest his hands on the bin he was sorting through before replying, "I think someone was just talking about us…"

"Are yous really dat superstitious?"

"Yes…"

Meowth sighed and was about to retort when Jessie's voice screamed out irritably. "Dat's not a good sign," he muttered. James nodded in frightened agreement.

"James! Meowth! Get over here!" she thundered.

Both males looked at each other nervously, they were a few yards away from the ship at a small clearing near where they had landed. They had been working on some bins, whilst Jessie worked near the mouth of their transport.

"Wha's wrong, Jess?" Meowth began after they made their way over.

"Twerp over there is being a thorough pain!" Jessie snapped, pointing angrily in the ship's direction. It was then they heard a clanging noise. It was Ash, busily swiping his hands across the steel bars, Pikachu and Squirtle too were making a racket pawing away at their little prisons.

"Hey!" Ash shouted. "Do you hear me? You won't get away with this at all! I'll stop you good and proper!"

"SHUT IT YOU ANNOYING BRAT!" Jessie yelled back, hopping into the ship to glare at Ash. He glared back and growled.

"I," Jessie began evenly, but the scowl on her face remained, "have had it with your obnoxious complaining little one. Meowth! James! Take him outside and string him up – and do the same with Pikachu and Squirtle."

The two villains looked at each other before sighing, and began to carry out Jessie's order.

"Hey! What're you two doing?" Ash grunted he was suddenly taken out of the cage and strung up, his attempt at escaping being thwarted by James' strength as he was held in place a few feet up the tree.

"Nothin' personal twerp, just carryin' out our orders," Meowth grunted.

"I don't know Meowth," James said after they finished tying Ash against the tree. "Tying the twerp up like that feels… wrong."

Meowth shot the man a look and shrugged where he was, after having placed Pikachu and Squirtle down. "We villains must do wat we tink iz the best course of action. Twerp's been puttin' the hurt on us for so long, makes sense to return da favor."

"I suppose that does make sense," James replied thoughtfully.

"Will you two hurry up and help me get through these blasted Pokéballs already!?" Jessie suddenly shouted at them.

"Ah! Coming!" both James and Meowth shouted and ran off, leaving Ash alone with his Pokémon.

"Pika… CHU!" Pikachu cried out, trying to shock his way out of his prison, but it failed. Ash struggled, but a combination of his tiredness from Misty's shopping bags and the tightness of the ropes was too much for him.

"Guess we'll just have to wait and hope that help comes for us soon…" he said with a sigh. " _If_ help comes in the first place that is." Then another thing struck him.

"Oh no, I might not be able to see them again, I don't even know where we are, I hope they can find us out here. I hope they find us… But if not – well… I never got to tell Misty how I…" Ash began choking on his words a bit, "…how I feel about her – and… I might never get the chance now to tell her…"

 **OoOoO**

Meanwhile Marill was leading in front the group before she turned once more to the right and pointed towards an old overgrown path in the forest.

"I think Marill's just found Team Rocket's hiding place over there among those trees," Tracey pointed out.

"We haven't a moment to loose then!" Leaf agreed. They both turned to Misty to see her reaction. It was a mixture of happiness and anger.

"Oh Team Rocket is going to pay!" she shouted, and with that the group took off.

Team Rocket was just packing up and were about to eat when it happened.

"Ivysaur, use Razor Leaf!" Leaf cried out from the trees. And before Team Rocket knew it, their apple slices got knocked out of their hands.

"Oh hey!" Ash cried out from where he was stuck. "It's Misty and the others!" But he was too far away to be noticed immediately.

"What's going on here?" Jessie demanded angrily.

"Yeah, it's rude to interrupt someone during their snack time!" James chipped in.

"Oh yeah?! Well it's too bad that I don't think that rule should apply to kidnappers at all!" Misty shouted back, Ash's hat now sitting on top of her head as she pulled the front part up to get a better view.

"Oh? Someone's got a lot of mouth today," Meowth replied. "Let's deal with them!" And Meowth quickly jumped into action.

Tracey immediately moved to apprehend him, "Marill, Water Gun!" he called, stretching an arm out. His Aqua Mouse Pokémon sprang into action, firing quickly. Meowth barely dodged, and still caught water on his tail

"Meow! I hate water, especially _wet_ water!" and cowered away.

"Twerpish twits! Go Weezing!"

"Weeze…"

"Sludge!"

"Marill, look out…!" But it was too late; Weezing was quick to fire the attack, and it hit Marill in the stomach.

"Go, Arbok!" Jessie then cried. "Poison Sting!" That did the trick, as it struck Marill it caused an explosion and Tracey and his Marill were flung into a nearby tree.

"Aah!" Tracey cried out, feeling defeated as he hung upside down thanks to the tree branches, his Marill was just an unimpressed but both could do nothing in their current predicament as they were stuck.

"Tracey!" the two girls cried out as they watched Tracey get flung away. Distracted, Jessie saw her chance.

"Arbok, use wrap on that Ivysaur!"

"Charbok!" it cried, and quickly ensnared Leaf's starter Pokémon in its strong tail.

"Oh no, Ivysaur!" she cried out. She was about to grab another Pokéball but Jessie stopped her.

"Nuh uh uh," she taunted, waving a single finger condescendingly, "do that and ol'Ivysaur over here gets it." On that remark Arbok then tightened its grip on the plant Pokémon and it cried out in pain.

Leaf gasped, but Misty glared, unlike Leaf, she wasn't going to just back down. "You," she angrily began, "have some nerve! Face us properly you coward!"

"Coward…?" Jessie asked with faked curiosity. "I have no clue what you're going on about, Twerpette. I'm just turning this battle's result towards the winning side's favor! Go, Lickitung!" she then yelled, releasing her licking Pokémon who simply stuck its tongue out.

"Fine, we'll battle, and if I win, I'm sending you three off with a blast and getting Ash back!" Misty angrily replied.

"Wait… Oh! You want twerp back so much? Well, there he is," Jessie said, taking a step to the side, revealing Ash and his captured Pokémon at the other end of the grove.

"Misty!" Ash cried out, relieved. "Please, help! It's not comfortable over here." And it wasn't, James and Meowth had tied him up just a few feet above the ground, and the ropes were _really_ tight as they held him in place, it terrified her as she took it in.

"Ash!" Misty shrieked. She turned with glaring eyes towards Jessie. "You…are…SO LOSING!"

"Uh oh…" Meowth murmured.

"Oh no is right," James agreed as they hugged each other in fear.

"Ah hahahaha!" was the reply that Jessie gave, freaking her teammates out. "Silly twerpette, love will only blind your judgement – making this victory almost too easy. If I win, you leave. James! Get your Weezing to help out!"

"Uh… R-right Jess," he muttered as he stood up and joined her as Weezing floated over.

Misty growled with fierce rage, completely skimming over Jessie's comment and turned to Leaf. "Hold on to Togepi for me please?"

"S-sure," she stuttered, and then took the egg Pokémon into her arms. "Good luck."

Misty gave a determined nod and then faced her opponents. "Right! Staryu, I choose you!" she thundered.

"Lickitung, use Tackle attack!"

"Weezing, use Smokescreen…"

Both Pokémon began, but Misty quickly saw through their strategy – blind Staryu and hit with Tackle.

"Staryu, use Rapid Spin!"

"Hyah!" Staryu was quick to do as told and blew the smoke away and struck Lickitung.

Misty quickly gave a follow up order, "Now use Water Gun on Weezing!"

"Weez!" the Poison Gas Pokémon groaned as it was struck.

"Use Wrap, Lickitung!" Jessie ordered. Lickitung quickly brought out its tongue and made a line for Staryu.

"Rapid Spin," Misty commanded quickly. Her Staryu moved fast and hit Lickitung, but the Licking Pokémon still managed to get up.

"Now Weezing, Tackle attack," James cut in.

His Weezing groaned and moved in fast and smacked Staryu hard. Misty gritted her teeth.

"Now grab that stupid star with Wrap, Lickitung!" Jessie eagerly commanded. Lickitung's tongue grasped onto Staryu. The starfish's red core blinking in distress as Weezing floated over it and poured down a Smog attack.

"Staryu…" Misty began, horrified at how quickly she was being over powered.

"Told you that you'd lose, silly twerp," Jessie said coldly.

Misty couldn't help but feel nervous, she was really giving it her all at the moment, she tried to give orders to Staryu, but Lickitung's tongue was too strong in holding her Pokémon in place, and the Smog was too intoxicating. "I… Ash, I-I'm sorry… I failed, I… wasn't strong enough…"

"Misty!" Ash's voice called out. "You can do it, I know you can! Don't give up yet! You're Staryu's trainer, you know it best, only _you_ can get Staryu outta there! You can do it! We both know that!" he was filled with hope, if Misty could beat them, this wouldn't be goodbye after all like he had thought. like he needed to doubt her skills though.

Misty's eyes shot wide open as Ash's cheering hit her ears. He was right – she couldn't give up, not now, not ever. She could find a way out of this situation; quickly shaking her head she eyed Staryu carefully and got an idea. She smiled as she twisted Ash's hat around on her head.

She threw an arm out, "Staryu, use Double-Edge!"

"Double-Edge?" Jessie mocked. "Why that attack, your Pokémon's good and stuck and-…"

"Ya better look at dis den, Jess," Meowth nervously stuttered. Jessie 'huhed' and turned, and saw Staryu back up slowly in Lickitung's Wrap attack, and charged forward suddenly, surrounded by the Double-Edge's white aura.

The attack pushed through the tongue and hit Lickitung. "Licky!" it cried out in pain.

"Ah!" Jessie cried, taken aback.

"Now Staryu," Misty went on with arm movements not too far off from what Ash would do in battle, "use your Bubblebeam, rapid fire!"

"Hyah!" it cried, and quickly spewed the forceful bubbles, hitting Lickitung hard as well as Weezing.

"Guh! Weezing, use Sludge!" Staryu fired Bubblebeam again and caused an explosion with the poisonous move that blew both Pokémon back, but Misty wasn't finished.

"Water Gun, go!" Staryu quickly pointed and shot water at an unsuspecting Weezing, it hit in a weak spot and was enough to end Weezing's day.

"Ah! Weezing, return," James called. "Well, that's me out…"

"James!" Jessie whined. "Oh whatever, I'll still beat you good young lady."

Misty just smirked confidently; she was back in charge of the battle. "Staryu, you're doing great," she cheered. Staryu, being its usual self, pulled a flex to show how strong it felt.

"Licktung, Tackle attack!" Jessie called out.

Lickitung jumped into the air, "Licky!" And was about to strike. Misty then decided to go toe-to-toe.

"Double-Edge, go!"

"Hyah!" Staryu charged forward and met Lickitung in an explosion before both landed back on the ground, obviously having taken heavy damage, although Lickitung looked worse off.

"Not bad for a lovesick twerp," Jessie grunted, holding out her right arm in a defensive manner. "Use Lick, Lickitung!"

Misty saw her chance. "Dodge that Staryu, and use Water Gun!"

Staryu quickly dodged Lickitung's attack then quickly fired its Water Gun.

"Hyah!"

"Lickitung!" it cried out as it was dredged in the face before landing on Jessie, defeated.

"Oh! Get off of me you!" Jessie yelled. "Arbok, get over here!"

"Charbok?" Arbok turned in its trainer's direction and scurried over, but not before Ivysaur wriggled its way out of the Cobra Pokémon's grasp – much to Leaf's joy.

"Hey! That's hardly fair at all!" Misty shouted as Arbok slithered over. "I just beat you!"

"Puh-lease," Jessie said with a dismissive wave, "all's fair in love and war. Now then, Arbok-…"

"Oh no, you don't!" It was Leaf as she came to Misty's side. "She won fair and square and you know it!"

"Fair is relative," Jessie cut back.

"Well, then _we'll_ just have to show you fair," Misty remarked. "Staryu, Bubblebeam!"

"Ivysaur, Solarbeam!"

"Saur!"

"Hyah!" And both Pokémon fired their attacks, and before Team Rocket knew it, they got blasted off into the sky.

"And we didn't even get to bring the Pokéballs back to the boss…" Meowth groaned as they flew off.

"Mm, it was a good battle though," James muttered calmly.

"Darn! Lost to a twerp!" Jessie moaned.

"Looks like Team Rocket's blasting off again!" they all then shouted.

Misty was about to thank Leaf when she remembered. "Ash!" she cried out, she raced away before she could even shake Leaf's hand, the brunette watched with amusement as the girl made her way towards the boy and quickly began untying him desperately, not even caring that Togepi was still in Leaf's arms.

"Misty! That was _awesome_ battling you did back there!" Ash said as he was untied, his eyes filled with gratitude. "You were great, you sure showed Team Rocket and… Oof!"

Ash was cut short because as soon as he hit the ground Misty hugged him hard. Ash's face was bright red as his face was buried into her shoulder, her arms tightly wrapped around him; he felt her whole body heaving against his like she was crying.

"Oh Ash!" she sobbed, crying into his hair.

"Misty I – er – well, um…" Ash began, hating how his lips were moving against her suspender and shirt. He felt his own body temperature heating up with embarrassment from the close contact. It felt paralyzing.

"Are you okay!?" Misty screamed. "Did they hurt you?! Did that Team Rocket lay one finger on you?! Are you bleeding?!" The questions were rapid fire as she pulled away and looked at him with pleading eyes, her hands still around his neck. She couldn't help but be worried.

Ash was starting to feel really flustered and confused now. Misty never cried openly in front of him, or anybody for that matter. "N-no! I'm okay, really I am."

Misty's eyes narrowed and suddenly she moved forward once again and…

"M-Misty, is this really necessary?" Ash murmured as he felt her hands rubbing all over him. He glanced away, trying not to be bothered by it.

"I just need to check for blood," she replied as evenly as she dared. She was glad when she felt no wetness of blood on him. "You're sure you're not bleeding, Ash?"

Ash smiled at her and replied, "No, I'm okay. Thanks to you."

"M-me?"

"Yeah… T-thanks for saving me, you were awesome back there."

"You're welcome," Misty said softly. It caused something weird to happen to Ash's spine. He began to feel himself from nervousness. He needed a distraction.

"Um… Oh! The Pokémon I-…!"

"I got it under control!" Leaf shouted, it was then that Ash noticed Pikachu and Squirtle were next to her along with Ivysaur and Togepi, he had to wonder how Leaf had managed to get by him so fast.

Leaf was thankful that her clumsy ways hadn't ruined the moment, she had managed to sneak past them quietly, grab the cages and open them all up whilst avoiding Ash's or Misty's attention, leaving the two to themselves.

Leaf secretly winked at Misty, Ash seemingly failed to have noticed it, "Just leave the Pokéballs to me! You need the rest." And she turned her attention to the bins, smirking to herself.

Ash said nothing. Now feeling unneeded he proceeded to sit down on the grass, Misty following suit.

When the brunette winked at her, Misty wasn't sure whether or not to glare at the young girl for her mischief, or to thank her for not letting Ash go running off when her emotions were just starting to reach some sort of climax.

They stared at each other for a bit, before Misty smiled kindly and reached forward, Ash barely had time to process a reaction before once again ending up in her arms.

"I'm so happy…" she murmured as she petted his hair.

"W-w-w-wh-what for…?" Ash muttered, trying to ignore the heat.

"That you're safe," she answered quietly. She then pushed him away a bit and looked him in the eyes. "That's all that matters to me right now, that you're safe. Ash, I care a lot about you, y'know?"

"Um… I – um, er – thanks. I care a lot about you too. It's… good to see you smiling instead of frowning y'know…"

Misty's smile just grew wider and she pulled Ash in again. The closeness ended up causing both to realize how hard their hearts were pumping. Ash began to sweat and felt himself getting dizzy as Misty gently continued petting him – it actually calmed his nerves down, if just for a little.

"That means a lot to me, Ash," Misty quietly murmured into his ear.

Ash's sweat increased but he fought back his nerves and decided to say something, "M-Misty?"

"Yes Ash?"

"Um, well, um…" he stuttered, the blush on his face intense. He gulped nervously as he breathed in her scent from her shoulder. He then gently pushed away from her and he looked up to see her face, she was blushing too, but a smile was evident on her features. And her eyes… well, they were gleaming, or so it seemed to him. All it did was make him feel weird. "Um… R-r-r…"

Despite his own nerves, he looked and saw that Misty gave him a kind and patient look. She wasn't making fun of him for a lack of words, instead he felt a wave of inviting kindness from her look, and he gulped and took that as a sign that he should continue.

"… Remember what I said last night… about… something that Tracey said to me yesterday?"

"Oh yes, I remember. Um…" This time it was Misty's turn to blush, "…That was when Leaf interrupted and thought we were gonna kiss, right?"

"Yeah – er – about that… Tracey um… he said…" Ash wasn't sure what to say. This scenario was completely foreign to him. He was out of his element here. It came as a shock when he then felt something warm touch his right hand. He looked and saw Misty's left hand placed gently on his and she gripped his hand warmly. He'd be lying if he said it didn't make him feel better.

"… Well you see it – er – he said that… suggested that you… Well… I… That is to say…" He shuddered a bit and gripped her hand for support. Ash looked up to meet Misty's eyes, and right then, he couldn't stand it anymore, "…To say that I… I… I'm in love with you, Misty." He then glanced down, almost as if he was ashamed. He closed his eyes and continued, "I love you, so, _so_ much, I… I want to be the only boy you have your eyes on. You… make me jealous when you give guys like Rudy attention and not me, and it hurts when you're really mad at me and well… Somehow it happened and I can't help liking you this way! Okay?!" he finished in one breath. He gulped and waited for the response.

"Oh Ash… it's _very_ okay," came the soft reply. It caused Ash to look up and he saw Misty's eyes watering up slightly. It made those aquamarine eyes of hers shine beautifully, but not as much as her smile did.

"It… is?"

"Very," she said happily. "It actually makes me very, oh so, _so_ happy." She then embraced him once more, and she began to cry. "I've loved you for the longest time Ash," she whispered into his ear. "I myself can't even identify when or how, but despite all the arguments we've had, I fell for you – you're reckless, dense, sometimes a real jerk… but you're kind, well-meaning, you think of others before yourself. Your heart is always in the right place, and don't you dare think that it isn't in the right place now, you kind sweet boy you."

"You mean…?" Ash asked hopefully.

"Yes," she said with a gentle stroke to the back of his head. "You're hearts in the right place right now… Yes Ash, I love you, I love you so much. Your hair, your eyes… your sense of humor… that laugh – what else do you think I followed you around for so long for?"

"Your bike," Ash answered with a cheeky grin. Misty just playfully rolled her eyes.

"Oh yeah, that stupid bike… I don't even care about it anymore," she responded softly.

Silence fell between the two of them, hands still together, still looking at each other, both quite not yet processing their confessions to one another. Leaf, Pikachu, Squirtle, Ivysaur, and Togepi quietly poked their heads from behind a nearby bin to spy on them. "Ooh, are things about to get good?" Leaf whispered to them.

It was then that Misty gently brought her right hand up and gently caressed Ash's left cheek with it. Ash shuddered a bit but didn't say anything as Misty smiled warmly, gripping her new boyfriend's hand where they were still joined. She began to make her move. Misty slowly leaned down and closed her eyes, using her hand to pull Ash towards her. Ash nervously mimicked her and he too moved upwards to go in.

But as they began getting closer, Ash nervously popped an eye open and looked at Misty's puckered face, and both his eyes opened. He nervously jerked his head to his right just as he felt Misty's warm, soft, wet lips make contact with his cheek. He shivered and went red; it did feel nice, but…

Misty opened her eyes once she realized it wasn't Ash's lips she was kissing, but his cheek. She raised an eyebrow and gave him a confused look as she backed off.

"Um…" Ash began scratching the back of his head with his left hand, his right tightening around her hand. "It's not that I don't love you… I just… I don't think I'm ready for one on the lips, that's all," he explained, wiping away her saliva. He hoped that his excuse wasn't lame and wouldn't make Misty upset, not after everything that had just happened. But to his surprise, Misty just smiled once more.

At first her feelings were a bit hurt, but when Ash told her how he felt about it, she understood and so she just smiled beautifully for him. "That's okay, you know," she whispered. "You don't have to kiss me on the lips just yet if you're not comfortable with it. I can accept just kissing on the cheeks for now."

Misty moved in and began smothering his left cheek with her lips some more. She felt him shiver but that just made her giggle loudly and she continued to kiss him wetly.

Misty giggled contentedly when she removed herself. She moved her head to her left and glanced at Ash from the corner of her eyes. "Go on, your turn." She closed her eyes and waited. She sighed happily when she felt Ash's lips pushing on her cheek, a strong blush covering her cheeks.

Ash felt awkward at first when he leaned up and accepted her offer for a kiss there, but her skin was so soft and warm it felt so nice he kissed just a bit more before sitting down again.

Misty smiled at him and wiped her cheek a bit before removing her hand from his and gently scooping his cheeks up. "I know I said I'd be content with this for now, Ash. But just to let you know, you do owe me one on the lips somewhere down the road."

"Okay, Mist," Ash answered with a gentle grin.

"It's a promise then," Misty mused. She sighed and continued. "I love you, Ash – always will, now and forever."

"I love you too, Misty – I promise I'll be the best boyfriend that you deserve!"

From where they were hiding, Leaf just sighed, "I love a good romance story. But never thought I'd get to see one up close and personal!"

"Pi-ika, Pikachu," Pikachu just muttered awkwardly. The other three Pokémon wholeheartedly agreed, with whatever that was…

Ash and Misty were just smiling at each other, lost in their own world, when…

"Um, hey? Guys?! I don't mean to interrupt the moment – you two look cute together and all that but… you mind getting me down from here?! Please?" Tracey interrupted from where he was still dangling.

All three Pokémon trainers sweat dropped before they burst into laughter.

"Oh sure thing, Tracey! Sorry man, forgot you were there," Ash laughed.

"Yeah, sorry about that, Tracey," Misty admitted.

"Yeah…" Leaf muttered, "I kinda left you there didn't I…?"

"Yeah…" Tracey grumbled, unamused. "Now please just get me down from here!" he yelped, flailing his arms around to emphasize his predicament.

"Marill, rill rill Mar!" his Marill agreed indignantly.

 **OoOoO**

After contacting the authorities the group managed to get Officer Jenny on the scene and with the kids to help, managed to return back all of the stolen Pokéball's to their owners, much to everyone's relief.

They all went to sleep that night, content and happy. The next day it was time for them to finally part ways, as Leaf had other parts of the Orange Islands that she wanted to explore. They were all a bit sad to see their little journey end so soon, even as they bided Leaf a safe journey at the ferry terminal it felt all too sudden.

"I want to thank you three for the fun we've all had together," Leaf began. "It was fun, truly."

"Well, not sure that I'd say the whole thing was 'fun'…" Misty replied, "…but it was all right, I guess."

"Just 'all right'?" Ash huffed, offended. "Then how d'ya explain _this_?" On that part, he raised his hand, revealing an ungloved hand with Misty's hand and his joined together, palm in palm.

Misty just laughed, "Oh c'mon Ash, y'know what I actually meant…"

"Well," Tracey cut in, "unlike you three I came out of that with aching leg bones and itchy skin! So if anyone here has a right to complain, it'd be me."

Leaf just laughed. "Yeah… Just don't forget to take medicine to ease the pain, okay?" She then turned her attention to Ash and Misty. "I'm so happy for you two, never thought that any of this would've happened the moment I met Ash. Glad to see you two got together in the end, you look great."

"Yeah!" Tracey agreed. "It was about time in my opinion anyways."

"But did we _ask_ for _your_ opinions in the first place on our relationship?" Misty said growling in Tracey's direction. The Sketcher flinched and nervously offered an apology.

It was then a ships horn could heard at the dock. "That's my escort," Leaf remarked, pointing a thumb in the gate's direction. "I um… guess this is goodbye."

"Only for now," Ash said, offering her a handshake.

"Yeah, just remember that we'll see you again soon," Misty offered as well.

"Besides, it's not like I don't have your contact info because of the fact that I did a sketch of your Pokémon for you," Tracey said.

"Oh yeah, I forgot," Leaf chuckled with a light self-inflicted punch to the noggin. "Well then, I'll be off to go explore the rest of these islands, maybe I'll meet more people with as much skills as you three. Good luck with the Orange League, Ash! Thank you all for everything!" she called as she ran off to board the ferry.

"Bye bye!" the three trainers called out to her.

"Pi-ika!"

"Toge toge! Prii!"

They waited till they could no longer see her waving. Tracey smiled and began to walk for the towns exit, Ash and Misty both waited a bit, Ash smiled as he looked down at their joined hands. "Shall we?" he asked her, gently thumbing her hand.

"Yeah," she responded as she tightened her grip on Togepi a bit, it was going to be hard getting use to holding him with just one arm, "we best get going."

"I love you," Ash said as they walked away.

"I love you too."

And so smiling once more, the happy couple and their mutual Sketching friend set off once again to explore the Orange Islands. Eager to meet new friends, and to challenge the Orange League and its champion, only for Ash and Misty though would this be the start of a completely new type of adventure with each other.

As their journey continues!

 **OoOoO**

 **Author's Notes:** Woo! The end – for now anyways, short epilogue planned – of this venture here. Hopefully I've somewhat satisfied you all in the end with this.

Some trivia with this here fiction were the inspirations, and they're weird, allow me to explain.

When I first began writing this I was a mutual Pokémon shipper, I wasn't committed to one at the time and I based the first chapter off of FanFiction I had read by Pete the Rock, then I got into Pokeshipping and chapter two was based on AngelicFairy's and Warlordess' works. Then I took a long break and chapter three came about and that one was based on NYIslandergirl's work… Yeah, this was all over the place (chapters 4 and this one are all my own doing; I wasn't influenced with those ones).

As for the title, you'll notice it's called _Misty Kicks it like it it's 1986_ , well the 1986 part is based off of the song _Feel it Still_ by Portugal. The idea to use 1986 also has to do with the year date that the Pokémon OS characters were presumably born in. See the original head writer Shudo stated in a Pokémon novelization that Ash was meant to be 10 years, 10 months, and 10 days old when he set off on his journey.

Taking that into account, if April 1st, 1997 was when he set off for his journey (coinciding with the Japanese pilot airing IRL), and Misty is indeed the same age as him being only slightly older, then both would've been born in 1986 in real time, hence the title – also 'kicking' because… Y'know, babies kick a lot, xD.

Anyhow, thank you all of the support on this FanFic of mine, this was my first Pokeshipping only project ever and whilst it's by no means the most popular given my one-shots out class it, it still means a lot to me seeing those who did care. So thank you.

Before I go though, special thanks to Zdbztumble for the feedback on this before publication!

David.


	6. Epilogue

_5 years, 4 months later…_

 _July, 2003_

Seventeen year old Misty sighed, bored as she relayed her expectations for the day to thin air. "Okay so I believe that boy Rainer will come back to have his rematch in the afternoon…there was also that little starter girl Lisa, but I don't know if she's coming today…" she stopped and put her palm to her head, she felt she was overthinking things. After all, as a gym leader she supposed that she would just have to accept things when they happened and just be prepared to deal with them the best she could.

Misty groaned and flicked at the desk pen for perhaps the umpteenth time that morning. " _Ten o'clock and not a challenger in sight_ ," she thought sadly, staring at the Cerulean gym's empty lobby and the empty sidewalk outside. Not a soul in sight, her Marill who was sitting nearby sighed with her.

"Ugh, stop whining already, sis," Violet huffed from her seat at the desk. It was her turn to look after the front lobby desk, and was getting annoyed at her sister's sighs. Violet grabbed the pen before Misty could roll it again. "Why can't you just – like – chill out. stop waiting around, and go busy yourself or something?"

"Why should I do that?" Misty snapped back, normally she wouldn't be so irritable, but the heat was annoying her despite the gym's cooling system.

"Oh I don't like know. Maybe because you're, like, clearly bored out of your mind?" Violet responded with a raised eyebrow as she shuffled through maintenance paperwork. "Just like, go out and enjoy the weather, or take a swim or something."

"How can I? I'm needed _here_ as gym leader in case you've forgotten!"

"Well – like – excuse me for being concerned about your state of mind as a _sister_!"

"Hey, hey! Like, break it up you two," a more mature female voice then shouted. Both Violet and Misty looked up to see Daisy and Lily entering from the gym's pool room. "Okay, so…explain why you two are acting up?"

"We could totally hear you from the other side of the battle field. Like, not cool," Lily said. "Especially when a girl – who is your sister mind, is – like – enjoying her morning swim."

Misty sighed, "Sorry… but _she_ started raving on me!"

"I did not!" Violet cried, offended. "I'm just tired of hearing you sigh all morning." Misty huffed and turned to her glass of water.

"Like, just, chill Misty. You're way too amped up for this time of year," Daisy advised, sensing her youngest sister's anxiety through the way she was fidgeting around. "Like, take maybe a few days off to hang out with your boyfriend in Pallet?"

Misty's head shot up. "As if I could!" she cried, hitting her head to the desk. "Ugh… I wish I could but I have no idea where he is! Last time he called me he was still in Kalos, and then that whole awful event with Team Flare happened and we haven't been in direct contact since!"

"Oh Arceus," Daisy said. "Is he all right?"

"I watched the news intently, yes, he's okay," Misty said, clutching her chest as she said so. "It's times like those ones where I wish I could've been with him and made sure he made it out okay."

"Then," Lily began, "why aren't you travelling with him? Especially considering like the fact that he _is_ like your boyfriend."

Misty's became furious and she turned to her three sisters, pointing accusingly at them. "Why?" she shouted. "I'll tell you why! Because before we even turned thirteen you three suddenly left a message for me and told me that you were all going on a cruise for a year, and that you were gonna leave me to run the gym without any consideration for my relationship with Ash!"

Daisy flinched and turned away but Lily spoke up. "Like, sorry?" Lily said. "But like, you both were only like eleven when you became that and no offense but like, you two were kids, so we like didn't even think that you were that serious about-"

"You all knew for a fact that my love for Ash was something beyond a little crush! Do you know how heartbroken I was when your message came?" Misty cried, tears forming in her eyes from the depressing memory. "You hurt me; I couldn't be with Ash anymore as a result of your decision to pin it all on me! I didn't want the gym to fail, so of course I came home to run the place."

The Sensational sisters looked awkwardly at one another. "Misty…we are honestly sorry for that," Daisy said gently, "we were younger then and airheaded. We're sorry, truly, we know now that it must've been hard for you. But…you're still together, right?"

"Yeah," Misty said, smiling a little despite the bitter memory. "Originally I broke up with him, I wasn't sure if I could handle a long-distance relationship, but I soon began to regret that decision. I loved him so much, the few days without him calling me his girlfriend gave me anxiety and heartache, I didn't care if we were physically apart, I needed to know that I wasn't risking my heart by allowing myself to be indifferent about him if another girl would dare to fall for him while I wasn't there next to him. I had to call various Pokémon Center's in Hoenn to track him down, I was in tears the whole time when I finally found him, I begged him for forgiveness for breaking up with him, and asked if he'd call me his girlfriend again." Misty then let out a choked sob as she smiled warmly at the memory, "The way my heart fluttered when he said yes was something I'll never forget, it made me so happy to know he still loved me, even if I wasn't with him…"

By this point her sisters were in tears, Violet and Lily especially. "Misty, that's so like beautiful! Your boyfriend is so pure!"

"Yeah… he's a goofball… but I love him, and he loves me."

"Lucky girl," the two continued, "at least Misty has her boyfriend to look forward to before the summer ends!"

Daisy just rolled her eyes. "Oh please, calm down. For a few months now _all_ our boyfriends have been away from us. Besides, it's not like we don't have each other, and anyways," she went on, specifically addressing Violet and Lily, "you two spend more time with _your_ boyfriends than Misty and I with ours. What with Tracey out exploring the Sinnoh region for a while, and the fact that he's always paying Professor Oak more attention than me, his own girlfriend – augh! So annoying… and consider poor Misty, Ash is always away and is currently all the way out in Kalos, miles away from her! You two ought to – like – consider yourselves lucky yours are only temporarily away on vacation and not far away from you for long periods of time."

Misty just quietly nodded at her oldest sister's wise words, but Lily and Violet just dramatically cried their eyes out. Then Misty heard the front doors opening and she eagerly turned around to greet what she assumed to be a challenger.

"Hello!" she called. "Welcome to the Cerulean… Ash?!"

"Hiya Mist, been a while," Ash Ketchum greeted, a content smile upon his face as he looked at his girlfriend. He had changed a lot over the past few years, he had hit a growth spurt at age fourteen and grew to be taller than her even, but his spikey hair style remained the same as when he was ten.

"Pikachupi!" his Pikachu cried out happily. He hopped off of Ash's shoulders and ran into Misty's arms.

"Pikachu! It's good to see as well," she said, smiling at him as she hugged the mouse Pokémon, normally as a tease she preferred seeing Pikachu more than Ash, but this time she really wanted to get up close to her boyfriend. "Why don't you go play with Marill, huh?" Pikachu agreed and went off to join Marill.

"Hey, what about me…?" Ash said flirtingly to her as he held his arms out.

"Oh Ash you!" Misty cried out, she ran at him, grinning ear to ear as she blushed. She lunged at him, wrapping her hands around his neck. Ash just laughed as he hugged her back and used the inertia from the charge to spin the girl around for a second before gently planting his lips down onto hers. Misty blushed at that, but eagerly pushed upwards to enjoy Ash's lips for the first time in a while. Misty's sisters all gaped at the scene.

Misty sighed happily against the kiss, the warm feeling brought back memories of how warm Ash had been when she first kissed him on the cheeks. It also reminded her of the first time they properly kissed each other. It had happened after Ash won his eighth gym badge in Johto, the boy had never looked so happy at getting his last badge, as a congratulations Misty took him out for dinner. Afterwards they went out to the woods to stargaze, it was a full moon that night and Misty honestly could say that was perhaps the most romantic setting they ever shared together. In the heat of the moment, she offered him their first lip to lip kiss; Ash, being only a naïve near thirteen year old hesitated at first and tried to weasel his way out of it, but soon relented and allowed her to kiss him. By Mew, Misty loved that kiss, it was warm the moment she made contact with Ash's lips, she liked the way it felt, and loved it even more when she felt him pushing back, it really had been a night to remember. Misty had turned Ash on to kissing that night, although it did take a while before open mouth kissing started to happen between them.

It turned out that kiss was well timed; she gave him one immediately after every won match he had at the Johto league, and kissed him sympathetically after he lost to Harrison. It was sadly after that when things changed. Luckily though, Ash was loyal to her, and if anything their love grew stronger for one another, it often amazed her that even after so many years they never became unhappy with each other. But even so, recently only one thing bugged her…

"Idiot," Misty said playfully as she back off from the kiss, "you go running off for Kalos before you even said hi to me after being away for a year."

Ash just chuckled and lightly scratched his head. "Yeah…sorry about that, Misty, but I was just so eager to go there after I got back from Unova, y'know? I mean, the way Alexa described the place, I just had to go there and compete!"

"Don't I know it," Misty said, rolling her eyes.

"But it is good to see you again, love," Ash said softly. It caused Misty another blush.

"Anyways…" she said, "when did you get back to Kanto? Last time I checked you were still in Kalos waiting for the airport to open. And why didn't you tell me you were home?"

"Well firstly the plane landed at Vermillion late last night, I then decided walked home because I didn't want to wait at a hotel – got home at about ten at night and spent time catching up with Mom. And secondly, well…" he then reached forward and cupped Misty's right cheek with one hand, earning him a gasp and blush. "…What's so wrong with wanting to give a surprise visit to my girlfriend?"

"N-nothing," Misty stammered, leaning in to his hand to enjoy it, she closed her eyes, but then realized something. "But wait, how did you get here so fast from Pallet? It would take hours just to get here on foot. Did you go and miss breakfast just to see me?"

"Nah, I came here by flying on top of Noivern, saves a bunch of time," Ash replied coolly, referencing one of his newest Pokémon companions.

"Noivern…isn't that your new dragon-type? The one with big wings you said, the one that uses Supersonic to locate things like a Zubat?"

"Yeah, that's right," Ash confirmed, smiling at how knowledgeable Misty was. "Maybe later I can introduce you to him. Now come on," he urged, turning around and started to drag her by the hand towards the front door. Pikachu quickly ran to catch up and he climbed Ash's shoulder. Marill followed him along, feeling confused.

"H-hey," Misty stammered. "What're you doing?"

Ash turned around and raised an eyebrow. "It's ten-thirty, Mist. It's time for my mid-morning snack – and I thought it'd be a great idea for a date to catch up."

"But Ash," Misty began awkwardly. "I'm needed here at the gym…"

"Oh, just hang a sign that says you're out for a bit, it's only a snack break. You'll be back before lunchtime," Ash assured her before pulling on her hand again. "Now c'mon, good food waits for nobody!"

"U-um, o-okay, but, where are you taking me?" she asked, not budging.

Ash smiled. "When I flew here I saw that there's this new crepe place and who better to check that out than the local gym leader and her boyfriend? Besides, I'm hungry and if we get moving now I'll still have room for lunch with you." He then gently kissed her again to persuade her, it seemed to work.

"You and your stomach," Misty giggled. "All right love, we can go on a date there." Ash smirked back and gave another tug, Misty stumbled forward as he lead her along. "Ah! U-um, Violet!" she called back. "Could please you tell all my challengers to wait in the lobby for me? I won't be gone for too long! Hey…easy there, it's not like the crepes are going to disappear," she grumbled as he pulled her along. Ash's stomach growled.

"Yeah that's true," he smiled. "But I am definitely buying at least ten crepes for me! I'm famished."

"Hey, at least give me a bite from yours!" Misty argued.

"Yeah, yeah. Sure thing sweetie, whatever you want."

Violet just sat at the desk, staring with blank eyes. " _Lucky…_ " she brooded, whilst Lily simmered angrily whilst leaning on the desk as she watched as her little sister being lead out the door.

Daisy just smiled and waved at the couple as they left for their date, she then turned to Violet and Lily and tutted at them. "You two…" she sighed and walked away, shaking her head.

"Lucky Misty…!" the two moaned sadly. " _She_ gets her boyfriend's attention before ours even tell us when they're coming back!"

 _Fin._

 **O** o **O** o **O**

And that's a wrap! If this seems messy I might edit it but honestly I just kept thinking all the things I wanted to mention and show in this epilogue, just a nice and simple scene of Ash coming back to Kanto to see Misty. Written as my gift to you guys on my Birthday.

By the way, if you want, listen to the Usui theme from Kaichou wa Maid-sama for when Ash enters the gym and greets Misty, I think it adds a nice romantic touch to it.


End file.
